WAEC Admits Grading Glitch—2025 WASSCE Pass Rate Now 63%

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has updated the 2025 WASSCE results for school candidates in Nigeria after uncovering a grading error, raising the share of candidates with credits in at least five core subjects—including English Language and Mathematics—from 38.32% to 62.96%.

Announcing the correction at a press briefing on Friday, Dr. Amos Dangut, Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, said the issue was detected during an internal post-examination review. He clarified that schools that used the Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode were not affected.

Updated statistics

• Five credits including English & Maths: 1,239,884 candidates (62.96%), up from the previously announced 38.32%.
• Five credits with or without English & Maths: 1,794,821 candidates (91.14%).
• Results withheld for alleged malpractice: 191,053 candidates (9.7%) pending investigation.

Background

WAEC initially released the results on August 4, 2025, for 1,969,313 candidates (976,787 males; 992,526 females). Earlier figures showed 38.32% achieved five credits including English and Mathematics, and 87.24% secured five credits irrespective of subject combination, with 192,089 results (9.75%) withheld for suspected malpractice. The Council later found technical errors in Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics caused by a wrong serialised code file used during printing, prompting a comprehensive review.

Apology and next steps

Dr. Dangut apologized for the distress caused and said WAEC is taking steps to prevent a recurrence. Candidates are advised to re-check their results via waecdirect.org. Digital certificates will be available 48 hours after result confirmation. WAEC also urged indebted state governments to settle outstanding payments so affected students’ results can be released.